


Monday Morning Museum Mayhem

by WordsTasteLikePeaches



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Adventure, Friendship, Gen, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-08
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-11 14:39:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1174274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordsTasteLikePeaches/pseuds/WordsTasteLikePeaches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Felicity Smoak moved from Colorado to Starling City with her mother, she encountered nothing but problems when trying to make new friends. A school field trip to the Starling City Natural History  Museum in late February of 1999 changes that when she becomes trapped with three teenaged boys while a group of masked men with guns lock down the museum. Felicity Smoak, Oliver Queen, Andy Diggle and Tommy Merlyn are forced to work as a team while trying to survive and make it out alive. Will they be able to save themselves? What about the rest of the students that are being held hostage? Keep reading to find out.<br/>AU where Felicity meets Oliver, Tommy and John's little brother Andy, while they are all in middle school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Winds of Change

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at any type of Fan Fiction so please be kind.  
> I would love comments or reviews and if something is confusing please ask. 
> 
> BIG THANK YOU to Mimozka for her awesome edits and advice. This wouldn't of happened without her. Also thanks to my friend Camille for reading the first draft and encouraging me to continue!
> 
> This is an Alternate Universe, so it will be different than what is shown on the CW show Arrow. Please take into account that the characters will not be exactly like they are on the television show and your head cannons and my head cannons might be different. ALSO I own nothing to do with Arrow. I'm just a fan who thought this might be an interesting twist for some of my favorite characters. 
> 
> One more thing- In the first half of the story Felicity has a flash back to her first day of school, and I put the entire piece in italics so it would be easier to understand the time jump. If it doesn't make sense just ignore it.

Felicity was not cut out for teen-dom or preteen-dom or whatever it’s called when you’re 12 going on 13. The only friends she ever had that really understood her were Lucas and Leiah and they were in Colorado, which felt like a million miles away on this particular morning.

There were many things Felicity hated about moving to a new city, new state, new school and new everything with her mom. But today it just seemed like the list just kept getting longer. It wasn’t like she could share these concerns with her mother, because her mom made the move from Colorado to Starling City to give them a better life. But moving never got any easier and already being socially awkward didn’t really help her case on the ‘trying to make friends’ front. They had moved to Starling City over the Holiday break and while it was late February and she had been at the school for almost two months now, that didn’t mean she was very popular with the other students. 

One of the many things Felicity had added to her ‘not so great things about moving’ list on this sunny Monday morning was the fact that the only thing she hated more than group projects was when the group partners were assigned to her by her teacher. The reason being it never failed - she always got paired with the worst girls in her class and possibly in the entire sixth grade. But as much as she hated these things, she needed to think positive add some things to her ‘good things about moving list’. Her all-girls school was taking a field trip to The Starling City Natural History Museum to look at the new exhibit on the Titanic. She just hoped she would be placed in a field trip group with some girls who didn’t know her and then she could try to win them over.

Felicity had learned early on that if she didn’t find the silver lining in her day to day life, no one else would. “Ummm… well I get to see this exhibit, which obviously is tragic and depressing because so many people died and if they had only put on extra life boats maybe they could of lived … But I wouldn’t have ever had the opportunity to see this exhibit  in Colorado Springs so there’s that… and ummm…” Felicity spoke out loud to herself as she was putting on her favorite red skirt that matched her black and white polka dotted shirt with sleeves coming down to her elbows.

“What honey?” her mom said. She was walking by Felicity’s door and overheard her talking.

“Oh, nothing! I was just talking to myself!” Felicity squeaked out. She thought her mom was in the kitchen not the hall. Her mother was used to her ramblings, but over the years had tried to help Felicity cut them down by practicing staying quite, which never really worked. As much as she tried, Felicity knew nothing could squelch her internal monologue and her lips that loved to stream her subconscious to the outside world.

“Okay, well, hurry up I need to be at work a little early today. Wait, Felicity, why don’t you wear jeans? It gets pretty cold in Museums and we both know how grumpy you get when you’re cold.”

“Ugg, fine.” Felicity huffed out as she took her time taking off her skirt.

“Felicity Hurry! I’ll meet you at the car.”

Felicity pulled on some jeans and grabbed her forest green sweater Leiah had given her for her 12th birthday. She had a feeling she would need the reminder today that she did have a friend in the world, even if she was miles away.

“Well if I can’t wear the red skirt I can at least wear these red earrings!” She grabbed the little heart studs and her backpack and ran to meet her mom at the car.

 When she was passing through the kitchen she spotted them sitting on top of one of the open boxes. Her Walkie-talkies. Well, _their_ Walkie-talkies, technically, they were hers but for years the little, blue, Walkie- talkies were used every day to keep in contact with her best friends and next door neighbors (Lucas and Leiah) and they were theirs to share. For some reason, she grabbed them and stuck them in her back pack and saw her spy kit below the devices. The box it was sitting in was filled with lots of things she used to play with after school with her friends, and some things that needed to be put away in her new room. She grabbed the spy kit as well, and then ran out to the car before she made her mother late.

She didn’t really know why she grabbed them but it felt right. Maybe she would get paired with some fun girls and they could split up and talk on the walkie-talkies while looking at different exhibits. But as Felicity mulled this over in the car on the way to school, she realized she was dreaming if she thought anyone at _this_ school would be interesting in having fun. If only Leiah and Lucas were here she could really have an adventure. It would probably be her luck that she would get stuck with a boring group or worse - mean girls.

It was almost comical now, the way Felicity could expect when bad things were going to happen to her. Just like she had predicted, she had been placed in a group on the bus with Victoria Gilman and Amber Washington. They were two of the worst girls in her entire school, in her opinion. They were very stuck up and treated everyone who they didn’t “accept” as inferior to them.  Victoria had red straight hair that came down to almost the center of her back. Her freckled light complexion and soft green eyes gave off the impression that she was a real life Anne of Green Gables. Felicity usually wasn’t one to judge people by their appearances, but the first day she ever met Victoria, she knew they were not going to get along.

Felicity was the new girl in the school after the Holiday Season and New Years break (it was now 1999) and as much as she hated moving to a new school in the middle of the school year, she kept up a positive outlook. She had a personal motto she liked to live by that her Bubbe had taught her long ago that stated that _each day held the possibility to do something good_ _and the chance to make a lifelong friend._ Felicity tried to live up to it the best she could. She had been a ball of nerves that first day, but kept reciting that motto over and over in her head to try to keep her nerves calm and her mouth shut.

However, Victoria had snapped all the reserve she had been trying to maintain when Felicity saw her drop her cup of paint on purpose onto Beth’s painting while the rest of the class was watching the teacher in art class. Felicity wasn’t watching the teacher because Beth had caught her eye.

  _Beth had Down-syndrome and no one seemed to notice how hard she was trying to copy every movement that the teacher was making onto her canvas except for Felicity. She saw how Beth used all the focus she had to make her hands mimic the teachers motions and try to recreate the tree the teacher was painting. Felicity had a buddy at her old school just like Beth and they ate lunch together two times a week and had music class together. He was one of the kindest people Felicity had ever met in her life and he showed her every day what true, unconditional, love looked like. He never judged anyone and Felicity liked that he always saw the best in people. Felicity thought maybe Beth could be her first friend at this school and maybe it would make missing lunch with her old school buddy bearable._

_But all of those thoughts were pushed away as Felicity watched in horror as Victoria took the orange paint and spilled it all over Beth’s painting and then onto hers as well._

_“Ahhh Beth what is your problem?!” Victoria screamed. “You just spilled all of the paint!”_

_Felicity was filled was such rage she shot to her feet, ears ringing as she saw Beth get large tears in her eyes._

_Beth looked down at her ruined painting and kept saying she didn’t do it over and over and over again. Victoria’s voice went up an octave and came out like the screech of a black crow._

_“I want to be moved right now! My parents pay too much money for me to come to this school_ _and then have to sit by people like her.  I want to be moved to where my masterpieces won’t be destroyed.”_

_The teacher was saying something but Felicity didn’t hear any of it because she was up and across the room before she knew she was moving. She stood right between Beth and Victoria and looked a confused Victoria in the face as she said: “You’re a liar! You poured that paint and I SAW you. Don’t you dare try to blame her you heartless witch!”_

_Felicity didn’t know where this voice was coming from, but it sounded angry and deep, and Victoria looked like she was a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car._

_Felicity was “new meat” at the school and Victoria really didn’t know what kind of person Felicity was, so she wasn’t going to test her by talking back to her. The teacher suddenly got her wits about her and stood between both girls._

_“Enough!” she huffed out._

_The whole class was silent except for the Beth’s sniffles. For some reason this little sound seemed to fuel Felicity’s rage and she decided she wasn’t going to back down. The teacher obviously wasn’t used to anyone countering Victoria’s little outbursts which, as Felicity found out later, happened often because she was just standing there looking at Felicity like she was an alien from another planet._

_“Alright now girls, it’s just a practice painting, it’s not even important. Victoria, sit down and Miss Smoak, please do the same.”_

_But as Victoria sat down with a confused look on her face Felicity turned towards the teacher._

_“She made her cry! And you’re going to let her sit back down?! I want to be moved next to her.” Felicity said, placing a hand on Beth’s shoulder as she spoke._

_Victoria took this moment to get her composure back and realized she had a way out. “I’ll take her seat and she can have mine!” said Victoria in a creepily sweet voice._

_The teacher looked between them. “Fine, just as long as there aren’t any more problems” she agreed and then turned her back to them, walking back to the front of the class._

_Victoria collected all of her things and switched with Felicity, but never apologized to Beth and that bugged Felicity to no end. As Felicity took her new seat she saw a smiling Beth looking at her. She leaned over and gave Felicity a big hug._

_“Thank you, new girl.” She whispered._

_Felicity smiled and quietly introduced herself to Beth as the teacher began where she left off in the lesson.  Felicity gave her canvas to Beth and took the orange one, telling her she loved the color even though, in reality, it wasn’t one of her favorites and this incident only added to the dislike of the color. From that moment on, Beth became her only friend and occasional lunch buddy at her new school, while Victoria became somewhat of her enemy._

So, of course, on this day she would be pared up with Victoria and Victoria’s best friend Amber. Amber was like Victoria’s mini-me. She went along with whatever Victoria said and, in Felicity’s opinion, could sometimes be even nastier than Victoria herself. Amber had skin the color of caramel and jet black hair that came down in ringlets to frame her beautiful, acne-free face. Felicity had heard in hall gossip that Amber had been a child model when she was younger and wanted to continue to pursue the career in a few years. Her mother was some sort of fashion designer in Starling and it seemed everyone at Felicity’s all girls school drooled over every new design Amber wore while Felicity, on the other hand, found her clothes kind of tacky and unoriginal.

‘Great’ Felicity thought, ‘just want I needed. What kind of silver lining can come from this day of constant nagging?’

“Excuse me, Freak, What did you say to me?” asked Amber as they filed off of the buses.

“First off, I’m not a ‘freak’ and second off, I was talking to myself so yeah…” Felicity replied, her voice trailing off towards the end.

“Like I said - _Freak_.”Amber snapped back.  

Felicity breathed through her nose as she bit her tongue and tried to not speak back. Only seven more hours to go and she was free.

One of the teacher’s in charge began explaining how the day was going to go.

“First off everyone make sure to take your backpacks and notebooks with you. You will be graded on the details of your notes and you will have to write an essay on your favorite experience and exhibit tomorrow in class.”

Another teacher chimed in and said “Remember ladies, stay with your assigned partners and we will all meet out back in the Butterfly Gardens for lunch at 12:30, so don’t forget your lunch on the bus!”

Felicity had everything she needed in her backpack, so she began to make her way up the large stairs with the entire group of sixth-grade girls from her school when she remembered Victoria and Amber. She looked around and spotted them at the bottom of the stairs talking to a teacher, and not just any teacher but Ms. Upland. She was the like what a vice principal had been at Felicity’s other schools but her job title at this school was site co-administrator, whatever that was.

‘Why can’t they have normal job titles like vice principal and principal instead of Site leader and co-administrator? This school is so weird.’ Felicity thought to herself.

Ms. Upland was someone who was impressed with a person’s financial and social status, and since Victoria was the mayor’s niece, she always took Victoria’s side in any dispute Felicity had ever seen.

“This is going to be an innnnn-teresting day.” She muttered under her breathe.

As she made her way back down the stairs, she watched as their school buses left and two charter buses pulled up to the curb and droves of boys piled out in identical uniforms and stood by the buses.

“What is with this city and ‘same-gender’ schools? Haven’t they ever heard of integration?” She said to herself as she reached the girls and Ms. Upland.

“Excuse me?” said Ms.Upland questioned.

“Oh, NO! I wasn’t saying that this city is sexist or anything! I was just making an observation, that the youth of this city seem to be separated by gender in so many ways. I have never seen an all girls swim team before and while it might seem weird to you, I find that children can benefit from interactions with the opposite sex.  And by sex I don’t mean sexual encounters, I mean as in girls talking to boys of the same age and…”

As she spoke, Felicity looked up and saw Ms.Upland giving her a strange look. She had her head cocked to the side like she was trying to decipher the words coming out of Felicity’s mouth, as if they were in a foreign language.

Amber had a creepy, smug smile on her face, while Victoria just looked like she smelled rotting flesh.

“III, Umm, yeah…” Felicity trailed off awkwardly. She could feel the blush on her chest rising to her cheeks.

“If you’re done now, Miss. Smoak,” said Ms.Upland, “I’d advise you to stay with your group and try to keep your observations to yourself for the rest of the day, for all our sakes.”

Ms. Upland followed the girls back up the steps and into the main entrance of the Museum. As soon as she was out of earshot Victoria and Amber turned quickly to their right and went into the women’s bathroom without so much as a word to Felicity. 

“Um, yeah, thanks for telling me, because it’s not like we’re a group or anything.” Felicity said, trying to catch up with them.

She used the restroom and was washing her hands when she heard a small shriek come from one of the stalls.

Amber had just come out and was headed to the sink when she heard the sound as well. She whipped her head around towards the stall.

 “Victoria? Are you okay?” Amber asked which came out more like a confused statement than actual concern.

 “Oh my god Amber I’m dying!” A small distraught voice from the middle stall said.

“What?” Felicity said in confusion.

“I’m DYING, FREAK! I’m bleeding and I can’t get it to stop!” Victoria’s voice snapped.

“Oh,” Felicity laughed “it’s probably just your period. I haven’t gotten mine yet but I always come prepared because my mom was telling me that one time when she was-” she started explaining.

  
“SHUT UP FREAK! This is no time for one of your crazy word vomits! This is serious, Victoria is DYING!” Amber screamed at her.

“Okay, everyone needs to take a chill pill,” Felicity said in a slightly loud voice. “She’s not dying, she’s just menstruating. Her body is shedding the…”

“I’m WHAT?!?” Victoria screamed. Felicity could hear her beginning to cry and becoming distraught by the way her voice wavered.

“Victoria, hang on, I’m going to go get help!” Amber said as she ran out of the bathroom.

“I don’t understand why you’re making such a big deal out of this,” said Felicity to the stall door “I mean, seriously, it’s just part of life and growing up to become a woman, and you wouldn’t be able to procreate and produce offspring without-”

“Just stop, Freaklicity, please, just stop. I have no idea what you’re talking about and I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to go to the hospital because I’m dying. SO SHUT UP!”

Realization dawned on Felicity at that exact moment.

“Are you telling me your mom never told you about the birds and the bees?” Felicity asked in an astonished voice.

“What the heck do ‘birds and bees’ have to do with me dying?” Victoria cried out.

“I, um… Wow… I mean I thought all girls knew… I mean how could you not? Your body has, obviously, been changing if you’re beginning your menstruation cycle and didn’t you have questions? I mean, I had questions right away when I began to get underarm hair, but before that I had this conversation with my mom when I was like nine and I even asked my Bubbe about pubic-”

At that moment Felicity was cut off when Ms.Upland came running into the bathroom with two other teachers in tow. They began to talk to the distraught Victoria and Felicity saw this as her opportunity for escape.

She began walking back to into the Museum and picked up a map as she passed the front desk. To her right was the Dinosaur hall and she walked inside, excited to see what this natural history museum had to offer. She stopped in the center of the atrium to look up at the complete skeletal remains of a dinosaur.

 For the first seven years of Felicity’s life she’d lived in Georgia with her mom. There had been a huge museum they would visit that had anything a person would ever want to know about dinosaurs and she’d learned a lot. Georgia might have been a long time ago, but she still had a soft place in her heart for dinosaurs.

 As she was staring up at the incredible creature, she spotted three boys that looked a little older than her, looking up at the beast as well. They were from that school that had come off of the charter buses earlier because she recognized their uniforms. The African American boy looked down at his map, and then back up at the dinosaur, like he was trying to figure something out. He had light brown eyes and a soft smile that Felicity immediately liked. She thought maybe he was trying to get information about the dinosaurs’ origins. Next to him, was a lanky and semi-tall blond, teenage boy. He was laughing at something a third, shorter, dark- haired boy, who was her height, was saying. The shorter, dark-haired boy began laughing as well. His laughter was contagious and she found herself smiling at them as she approached. As she walked closer she heard the dark headed boy whistle and then say “That is one GIANT monster.”

The blonde boy perked up at that, “I know right?! Can you imagine trying to outrun this T-Rex? I mean, we would have been DEAD!” he exclaimed excitedly.

At this point, Felicity had reached their group and cleared her throat.

All three boys turned around to look at her.

“Umm actually this isn’t a T-Rex. It’s an Allosaurus which is much smaller than a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but is actually in the T-Rex family, so I can see why you thought they were the same, but if you ever saw a real T-Rex skeleton in person you would realize that this looks like the baby _baby_ sister of a T-Rex. And as much as the Allosaurus is...” Felicity trailed off when she realized that all three boys were looking at her like she’d just stepped out from some science-fiction movie and had just grown wings in front of their eyes.

“Who are you?” the blonde boy asked.

“Um, I’m Felicity and yeah I know you probably didn’t want a lesson in dinosaurs but sometimes I can just go off on tangents if someone doesn’t stop me. I could probably fill your head with hours’ worth of information.” She said pausing for a breath “Like, there has only been one definitive Tyrannosaurus Rex that researchers have found that is a specific gender. Personally, I think it’s crazy because you would think that they would have different reproductive bones, but no, they didn’t - it was all organs and muscles…” she rambled, hands flying in the air as she spoke, emphasizing the dinosaur to their left.

About this time it dawned on her that she was talking to strangers about the reproductive organs of dinosaurs. It was probably a good idea to stop talking. “But you didn’t need to know that so I’m going to stop talking in 3… 2… 1…”

The blond boy looked confused; the African American boy with the map just smiled at her, while the dark haired boy stepped up with his hand outstretched and a smirk on his face and introduced himself.

“Hi Felicity, I’m Tommy Merlyn, but you probably already knew that. Do you want a picture or something?” Shaking his hand, Felicity got the feeling that this boy was a bit cocky, but she had no idea why.

“I have no idea who you are because I just met you, and I don’t need a picture of that dinosaur, I have plenty of books about them at home.” She said, clearly confused to why she should know who Tommy was.

The guy with the map busted out laughing and came forward to shake her hand as well.

 “Oh my God, I think you are the first girl to ever turn down Tommy for a picture. My names Andy Diggle and I think you’re awesome!”

“Uh thanks I guess,” she shook his hand “But why would I want a picture with you?” Felicity turned to Tommy again “I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s not like you’re not handsome or anything, which you are, but not in a ‘oh-you’re-so-gorgeous-I-want-to-make-babies-with-you’ sort of way, but in a “aww- you’re so-handsome-little-brother” way… not that I think of you as my brother, I don’t, cause I don’t know you, it’s just, just,” she fought to find the right words to get herself out of her foot-in-mouth situation “3… 2… 1…” she counted, taking a deep breath. She could feel the color rising to her cheeks from embarrassment.

Andy was bent over, holding his side, laughing so hard and repeating the phrase ‘little brother’ with tears coming out of his eyes, whereas Tommy looked like he was in shock and the blond boy had raised his left eye brow up in amusement.

“Do you not know who I am either?” he asked her.

“Obviously not, ‘cause I’ve never met you and you haven’t told me your name yet. Which I’m not asking you to, it’s just I don’t understand why, you guys, think I’m like, some kind of mind reader.” She said bringing her hands up by her face and imitating what she thought a mind reader would do.

The blond boy stuck out his hand at that “I’m Oliver Queen.” He said.

“Well nice to meet you Oliver. I’m Felicity but you already knew that so-”

 “Where are your friends?” Oliver cut her off

“In Colorado. Why?” she asked in confusion.

He tilted his head to the side, giving her a confused look. “Your school drove all the way here from Colorado?” and asked sarcastically.

“No! Oh, well, I go to school here now, it’s just, you said friends, and my automatic reaction was to think of my real friends, which are back home. Well, technically, Colorado isn’t my home anymore, but I don’t have any friends at this school; well except for Beth, but that’s a long story, and Victoria and Amber- the girls that I got paired up in a group with are definitely NOT my friends… I mean, technically I don’t have enemies, but if I did they would probably be at the top of my list, but I don’t know maybe Victoria was just acting bitchy because she started her period today…” At this Tommy squished his face up into a look of horror while Andy’s eyes got wide and Oliver looked clearly uncomfortable. “I mean I’ve heard that your mood swings increase when a woman begins to ovulate but…”

At this Andy left let out another round of laughter, so intense, Felicity thought he might wet his pants.

 “I can see why you don’t have friends.”  Oliver commented. This comment hurt Felicity more than it should have because these were strangers, they didn’t know the real her.

Tommy was giving her that look she was used to getting from teachers that told her they had lost her after the first few sentences.

“Oh my god Felicity, you’re hilarious!” Andy said between labored breaths as he tried to regain his composure.

“Well, I wasn’t trying to be funny.” Felicity said with an undertone of hurt in her voice.

She couldn’t help that she didn’t have friends at her school. Peopled just didn’t get her. And this was one of the reasons she hated trying to make new friends, because they always ended up laughing at her. Andy and Tommy’s faces fell and she realized she had said that last part out loud.

“ _Oh no_ , I wasn’t laughing at you Felicity! I was just shocked that you were being so honest. Really!” Andy said with a slight hint of desperation.

“Dude, Andy, what’s your problem?” said Tommy.

He turned around and faced Felicity, “I’m sorry, we were just taken a back that’s all. Not a lot of people tell us the truth when they are around us and it was, um, _very_ unexpected.” He explained.

“Tommy, you don’t know her.” Oliver protested.  “She’s obviously lying. Everyone knows who we are and she’s just trying to get a story. Here” He handed Felicity a card with his name on it. “Now you have my autograph. Need anything else?”

Felicity whipped her head around to look Oliver straight in the eyes.  Her anger bubbling up until she thought she might just explode. Of all the nerve, did he seriously think she was trying to get his autograph? Not only had he insulted her by, kind of, saying she was weird but then to say she was a liar and some kind of autograph hound!

 “Excuse me?!” her ‘loud voice’ made an appearance as she took the card he had given her, crumpled it in her hand and then threw it on the ground. “I am NOT lying! You are a stuck up ass whom I have never laid eyes on before in my life and who needs to learn some manners. I was just trying to help you stupid jerks out because who thinks this small skeleton is a Tyranasaruous Rex? I mean did you fail the second grade? No one is their right mind would make a mistake like that?! And what’s the thanks I get? - I get laughed at! And another thing,” She got right up in Oliver’s face and stuck her pointer finger at him.

Oliver face looked like a mixture of shock and slight terror as she moved closer to him, finger pointing, as her rant continued. He obviously wasn’t expecting to be called out or told off by the look on his face.

“Who the hell would want your autograph you pampas jerk? You better learn to treat people with respect because one day you’re going to wake up alone and dead on the side of the road and no one is going to come to your rescue. And YOU will be the one with no friends because of the way you treated them.” She turned around and faced a shocked Tommy and smiling, wide eyed Andy. They both looked taken aback by this short, spit fire blonde that didn’t hold back. “Nice to meet you guys. Hope I NEVER see you again.”

With that she turned around and walked away silently freaking out. As soon as she turned the corner she began talking to herself.

“Oh my god Felicity what did you just do? I mean obviously that Oliver was a jerk but why did you tell him off and then say he’s going to end up dead on the side of a road?! And how can a person wake up dead?! Ugh, pull it together. Just go look at the exhibits, don’t try to correct people and just **keep to yourself**!” At this she took out her map and picked the exhibit in the very back of the museum, the Monet paintings.

“Okay this is harmless, just go take some notes and then just make your way to the other exhibits. You can do this.” She made her way to the very back of the museum and was thankful when the hall with the painting was empty. “For once a little luck today!” She fist pumped the air and sat down on one of the benches in front of a painting.

She sat there for awhile, taking in the serene scene of water lilies on a pond and calmed herself down. She had always loved water lilies and when she was younger she believed they were the magical flowers of the lake fairies. Felicity chucked to herself as she remembered her mother arguing with her Bubbe to not fill Felicity’s head with such nonsense. Her Bubbe was the best story teller Felicity had ever known. As a small child Felicity spent hours listening to her stories and what Felicity loved the most was that her Bubbe would let her guess the endings of the stories. Her Bubbe came up with all the mysteries, epic battles and romances but there was always an ending that they would both agree upon to finish the story.

Felicity was going to move on to another painting but remembered that she was supposed to be taking notes on what she saw. As she began to get out her notebook from her backpack she heard some people coming towards her and into the exhibit hall.

 Oh no, she recognized those voices!

“I mean, she chewed you out, dude! You were a real piece of work back there!” said Andy

“Yeah well she was a bitch so…Oh my god **are you stalking me**?!” At this Felicity turned around and saw that Oliver was addressing her.

“Wow your even more arrogant than I thought.” said Felicity. Where the heck was this coming from?! Didn’t she say she was going to try to not talk to them again? But he called her a bitch so…

“I enjoy Monet, for your information, and this museum isn’t yours so I can go anywhere that I want. Now, I was here first, so I’m going to ask nicely because you’re really testing my patience today and I’ve already had way too many outbursts, so please **leave**.”

Oliver’s face became enraged. Why did this girl seem to push all of his buttons? “I am not going anywhere.” He was looking down at Felicity but she just walked past him.

 “Well, neither am I, so you can keep to that side of the exhibit and I’ll stay here.” With this she turned around and began to look at one of the paintings on the wall like nothing had happened.

Andy came up to her side as she heard Tommy and Oliver walking away to the other side of the hall, talking to each other in harsh whispers.

“I’m sorry Felicity, really, they’re not normally this… jerky.” Andy was looking down at her with sincerity written all over his face. “Seriously, believe me, normally we are actually who girls want to hang out with. Normally, girls are falling all over themselves to talk to them,” he said shaking his head “but that’s not the point. The point is, I’m really sorry, I don’t know, you’re just really… unexpected.” He said

“Well that’s one way to say I’m a freak.” Felicity replied.

 “No, Seriously Felicity, I’m sorry. Both Tommy and I are sorry. Really. If there is anything-”

Right at that exact moment when Andy was trying to apologize, gun shots rang out far off but within the museum, followed by screams and shouting.

“Get DOWN!” Andy screamed and pushed her head down to the ground.

He was covering her body with his. Gun shots kept ringing out but they didn’t seem to be getting closer.

 “GUYS FOLLOW ME!” Andy yelled to Tommy and Oliver.

 They ran over to where Felicity and Andy were and Andy helped Felicity up from the ground.

“Come on guys we need to hide! We don’t know what’s going on.” Andy urged them over the gunfire and screams.

They all followed Andy out of the exhibit and into the museum hall. At the end of the hall there was a door Felicity had failed to notice when she first passed through that part of the museum. It had a sign on the door that said ‘Electric’.

Andy tried the doorknob only to find it was locked. There weren’t any other people around them because they were in a more secluded part of the museum. Felicity covered her mouth with her hand to prevent herself from screaming each time another shot rang out and distant cries of pain were heard. She realized her face was wet and she didn’t know when she started crying.

Suddenly, Tommy grabbed something from her hair and handed it to Andy. He had her bobby pin and was able to get the door unlocked and open. Andy pushed them all inside and then got in, shutting the door and locking it.

The room was a lot larger than Felicity had thought it would be. It was still a small closet, but they were all able to fit inside and had just enough room to move around.

Shouts and shots continued to ring outside the hall.

“Hurry, help me Oliver!” Andy was pointing to the shelves on the side of the room filled with cleaning supplies and what looked like tools. The shelves were heavy and it took Oliver, Tommy and Andy to push the shelves in front of the door. The sounds of gunshots seemed to be more sporadic now, but they sounded closer.

Felicity looked at Andy and suddenly she was talking “ **Oh my gosh,** where did you learn to do that with my bobby pin?! Are we going to die? Oh my god all of those people.” Felicity brought up her sleeve to wipe her dripping nose but all she could hear were the screams from before still ringing in her ears. The thought of all her classmates getting shot made her feel queasy. “Oh god, were all going to die!”

She began to cry harder. She could feel her heart beat in her ears. All she could see was her vivid imagination bringing up the faces of all of her class mates faces in pain, bleeding out in a science museum. She could feel deep pain in her chest, as she tried to breath, but she kept thinking of Beth. Oh, Beth! Oh God, what if she’s been shot! Why couldn’t she of been placed in her group? She could have protected her! Oh god, What if she’s dead. At this thought, Felicity, couldn’t really hear anything anymore and couldn’t really see anything either. Her panicked breaths caught the attention of Oliver as he recognized the sound.

Suddenly Oliver was in front of her eyes and had both his hands on her cheeks. Oliver had realized she was having a panic attack and immediately couched down to help, putting aside his earlier anger towards her. His little sister Thea had been having panic attacks for the last year, ever since she had gotten lost on their family vacation to Alaska. Now every time they were in a store, or even sometimes when she couldn’t find anyone in their large home, she would have a panic attack about being alone and forgotten. As Felicity sat there on the ground freaking out, he realized what a jerk he had been to her and saw his little sister Thea, in her. 

“Felicity breath.” said Oliver. She instinctively tried to remove her face from his hands, but it didn’t work. “I’m not going to hurt you. You’re having a panic attack. My little sister Thea gets them all the time. You need to breath or you’re going to pass out. Just focus on me. Umm just listen to me okay. I, uh, I’m sorry about earlier okay? Really truly sorry. I was a huge jerk and if someone ever talked to my sister liked I talked to you, I would want to punch them in the face… Uh, Thea, she like’s Barbie’s. Do you like Barbie’s?”

Oliver was obviously struggling to connect to the girl who he had been calling names less than 30 minutes before. Normally, it was so much easier with Thea because he could just talk to her about her interests. “I, um, have no idea what girls your age like. How old are you?” Oliver didn’t stop to let her answer thankfully because Felicity still wasn’t able to make out words as she was trying to get her breaths under control.

 “I’m 14.Well, were all 14.” He said gesturing with his head over to where Tommy and Andy were sitting beside Felicity looking quite helpless. “Later this summer though, Tommy is going to get his permit and then he will be able to drive us all around. He’s supposed to be getting a Porsche for his birthday. He wants a red one with black pin striping down the middle and flames on the side.” As Oliver began to talk about Tommy’s dream car, his face lit up and he looked genuinely excited. His face had softened as he still held Felicity’s face in his hands and his crystal clear blue eyes seemed to be pulling her back to reality.

 “He will have to dive with an adult, obviously, but while we wait, Andy’s big brother John, sometimes, takes us out, and teaches us how to drive. We don’t see him as much as we used to because he’s a senior this year, and is going to be going off to the Army next year. But sometimes, after our secret driving sessions, he takes us out for pizza and we have these crazy guys’ nights where we stay up late, having movie marathons.”

By this time Felicity was able to focus on Oliver and felt more like herself. She was even able to get a question out. “Who buys a 15 year old a Porsche?”

At this Oliver stifled a laugh. “There she is.” A crooked smile played on his lips. 

Felicity gave him a small smile as he sat down next to her.  She was going to say something about cars when they suddenly heard gun shots right outside in the hall. They all held their breath as they heard the sound of footsteps outside the door. Andy and Tommy sat down and all the boys subconsciously moved to place themselves between Felicity and the door. The sound of the door handle rattling made their bodies go rigid.

 “Mike, it’s locked.” Someone’s voice on the other side said.

 “Well go find the keys! We can’t leave any room unopened.” Another voice, probably belonging to Mike, responded.

The sound of footsteps getting farther and farther away was the only sound Felicity could hear besides the beating of her heart that was thumping in her ears.  When they could no longer hear the footsteps Tommy spoke up “What are we going to do guys? They’re going to find the keys and come back.”

“We could try to fight them.” said Andy.

“Are you crazy?!” asked Oliver, his voice resembling more of a hiss than a whisper “they have guns and we have what?” he looked around the room and his eyes landed on the shelf “A shelf for a barricade and some tools?”

Felicity began to feel overwhelmed again. She was going to die in the tiny closet with some strange teenage boys and at that moment her life should have been flashing before her eyes, but it wasn’t. Was her life really that boring that nothing of importance could come to her mind? She might have never been kissed, but that didn’t mean she led a completely boring life.

She leaned her head back against the cool concrete of the tiny closet. What was she doing, thinking about kissing at a time like this? Ugh, her brain thought of the most inopportune times to bring up random topics! Shouldn’t she be writing a letter to her mother to tell her how much she loved her? Did she need to write out a will? What did she have that was of monetary value? Nothing really except for... She looked up to the ceiling, as she was thinking about who would get her possessions, and that’s when she saw it.

 An air duct.

And suddenly she felt hopeful.


	2. McPoppins and Mood Swings MaGoo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can four students hide in an air-duct without being found and killed?

Previously on MMMM …

_She leaned her head back against the cool concrete of the tiny closet. What was she doing, thinking about kissing at a time like this? Ugh, her brain thought of the most inopportune times to bring up random topics! Shouldn’t she be writing a letter to her mother to tell her how much she loved her? Did she need to write out a will? What did she have that was of monetary value? Nothing really except for... She looked up to the ceiling, as she was thinking about who would get her possessions, and that’s when she saw it._

_An air duct._

_And suddenly she felt hopeful._

“Guys,” Felicity whispered drawing their attention “I have an idea, but you’re going to have to trust me.”

All eyes were on her as she quickly filled them in on her wild plan.

“Okay, so we need to move the metal barricade away from the door first, because we’re going to need to use it as a ladder. And once we’re gone it needs to look like no one was ever here.” She quickly rattled off.

At this Tommy’s eyes went wide “What if they come in here-”

“Stop Tommy, seriously, just trust me.” Felicity reached out and touched Tommy on his arm. He gave her a small smile and a nod of his head. She didn’t know where she was getting this strength from, because just a few minutes ago she was a few breaths away from passing out, but this new idea of survival gave her hope and she needed them to see it that way.

Andy got up to his feet and asked “Okay Felicity, where do we need to move this?”

“Right back against the wall where you guys got it from.” She motioned with her hand to the left side of the room. “And make sure it’s all the way against the wall.”

The iron bookcase, shelving thing was heavy and it took all the boys strength to move it back. They were breathing hard, out through their mouths, as they lifted the shelf and shuffled to the other side of the room, slowly trying not to drag it on the floor and make noise. Felicity tried to make sure nothing fell off of the shelves as they moved, because if anyone heard any noise from inside the room her plan would fail.

As they sat the shelving unit against the wall everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“Okay, now you see that air duct up there?” Felicity pointed to the ceiling “Were going to climb up the shelves and hide in the air duct. Now hurry! Andy you need to go first. Tommy and Oliver, you guys hold the shelf and make sure it doesn’t tip over, then Oliver, you go up, and then Tommy.”

“What about you? Why aren’t you going first?” questioned Andy

Felicity pointed to a large electrical box on the wall.

“That’s why. I’m going to disable as much of the door alarms as I can so alarms won’t go off if people try to leave the building. Hurry guys, we don’t have much time! I’ll be right behind you.”

Felicity moved to the electrical box and opened the front panel. _Oh wow_ \- it was more complicated than she thought. She just needed to think of it like a computer mother board. She could do this.

Behind her Oliver and Tommy were having a silent conversation while Andy climbed the makeshift ladder. Oliver looked worried about the shelf and Tommy just nodded his head as if to say ‘It will hold’. It was not super sturdy though, and once Andy reached the top, it swayed under his weight. If Tommy and Oliver hadn’t been there to brace it, it surely would have fallen over. The vent opening was not directly above the makeshift ladder but beside it. Andy was able to pop off the vent cover and hoist himself up the rest of the way. He slid the vent cover sideways and into the air duct so he would be able to place it back on once everyone was inside.

As Oliver began climbing Felicity began unplugging wires. She was pulling out all the ones that said door and then would listen for a second to make sure that no alarm was triggered. As she was working she saw wires that went to s-alarms. She wasn’t quite sure what that meant but she decided to pull one just to see what would happen. To her surprise she didn’t hear an alarm go off. Maybe it was some type of signal alarm and could lock down some of the exhibits! With this idea in her head she began disconnecting s-alarm wires as well.

As she was finishing up with that she heard Tommy whisper “Psssst” behind her trying to get her attention.

“Felicity, I need you to hold this while I climb.” Tommy quickly whispered.

Felicity moved to the metal shelving, forgetting about her wires. “Okay Tommy, go!” He began climbing; trying to make sure his weight was even as he came closer to the vent and the waiting hands of Oliver and Andy to pull him up. As soon as he was inside he whispered down to Felicity. “Come on, It’s your turn now!”

“Wait I have one more thing I need to do!” Felicity said as she turned back around to the electrical board.

“No, Felicity come on!” Andy said in a strained voice

“Hold your horses, I’m almost done!” she explained as she disconnected a hand full of orange s-alarm wires. Suddenly a loud alarm began blasting in all of their ears! She looked down and realized she had pulled a red wire with all of the orange ones.

“Felicity, leave it and come on!” Andy yelled over the alarm pounding in all of their ears.

“Oh God, Oh God, Oh God! I can fix this; I can fix this just hold on.” She fingers moved quickly trying to figure out where she had pulled the wire from. She tried a few empty places but the sound continued on. She saw a small connector next to one of the s-alarms and stuck the wire into the hole. The sound suddenly stopped.

“Yes!” Felicity said as she fist bumped the air. She closed the Electrical box and then heard voices from outside in the museum hall.

“It stopped! Come on!” running footsteps could be heard now getting closer to the door.

Felicity scrambled up the shelves, hurrying as fast as she could, forgetting that she had to take it slow so the shelf wouldn’t topple over. Her foot hit something and then, as if in slow motion, she watched as a wrench fell off of the shelf and dropped to the ground with a loud CLANG!

“I heard a noise! Someone is definitely inside! OPEN UP OR WE’LL KILL YOU!” screamed an angry male voice. The twisting of the door knob let her know they were trying to get in. The sound of the men trying the lock with different keys was the only sound Felicity could hear as she kept climbing. Then someone began shooting at the door. It was a very thick metal door and the bullets didn’t go through but Felicity didn’t know how long it would hold.

Felicity was frozen with fear. She was almost to the top of the metal shelves but knew she wouldn’t make it in time. She looked up and saw Tommy, Oliver, and Andy’s arms out stretched to her. Tommy mouthed the words ‘ _Jump_ ’ to her. Jump?! Jump where? She thought. Tommy mouthed to her again ‘ _We will catch you, jump_!’ Felicity nodded her head quickly and jumped.

It felt like she was in some kind of movie, the world was rushing by her as she jumped into the air and missed their arms. She was short by only a few inches but those few inches mattered and she was going to die because of her weak jump. Why didn’t she take her mom’s advice and exercise more? Suddenly Felicity was jolted from her thoughts as something like a seat belt wrapped around her shoulders pulling her up into the ceiling and away from the room below. HER BACK PACK! Someone had grabbed her back pack that was still on her back and hauled her up into the ceiling.

As soon as Oliver and Andy pulled her entirely into the airshaft Tommy popped on the air vent as the door below them slammed open and four men, all dressed in black, stormed inside the small room. They had ski masks on and were holding large guns.

All the courage Felicity had been feeling earlier was gone and replaced by fear when the reality that she could have been dead if she had fallen hit her. Her heart was racing a mile a minute as she watched the men circle the room and talk among themselves.

One of them leaned down and picked up the wrench. He set it back on one of the shelves and turned towards the others. Another masked figure opened the electrical box. Realizing she had just been there a minute ago made her shudder. Suddenly something warm wrapped around her back and shoulders while a large hand came to cover her mouth. She knew she might have screamed if she didn’t know that one of the boys was trying to comfort her and keep her quite as the men below talked.

“Well I have no idea what any of these wires mean. Doesn’t look like it’s been tampered with but it looks pretty old to me.” Said the first man.

“Donny, you don’t know what you’re looking at! James, Come here. Shouldn’t these orange wires be connected to something?” Said a second gruff voice

Someone who must have been James walked over to the Electrical box on the wall and sighed.

“Damn it! Somebody was definitely here.” He grabbed a clump of some of the orange wires and grunted. “They must have left before we could get back. They knew what they were doing though because they enabled all of the silent alarms.” he angrily growled. He ripped the clump of orange wires he had in his hand from the electrical box. So that’s what the S-Alarm meant! _Duh Felicity!_

“Does that mean were going to have to speed up our plan? Don’t the silent alarms alert the police?” Asked the fourth man who had his gun trained on the door.

“The police might have known we were here before, because of the gun shots, but they definitely are aware of our presence now.” Said the man that the others had called James.

“This just means it’s time for us to begin our negotiations. Mark and Allen go back to the hostages and meet up with the rest. Donny and I will meet up with team leader and report our findings. Remember don’t kill any of them until he gives the okay.” James ordered as they all moved out of the closet, shutting the door and locking it behind them with the click of the door resonating loudly in the silent space.

It took a few minutes for the words of the masked men to sink in to the brains of the small group huddled in the air duct.

Andy spoke first.

“I…I…I didn’t…I don’t understand… What?” he asked to no one in particular.

Felicity tried to move and realized the warmth at her back was actually Andy. He had her in some type of bear hug with his arm around her waist holding her to him while his other hand was still covering her mouth. She squirmed to try to get out of him grasp and then he released her realizing he had still been holding onto her. She turned around to him and saw he looked a little embarrassed. His cheeks were a little flushed but he had a far off look in his eyes and Felicity felt like she could see the wheels turning in his head.

Oliver hadn’t moved from his position since she had entered the ceiling. His lip’s were pursed together in tight grimace and was staring down through the grates of the vent into the room below almost in a trance like state.

Tommy on the other hand looked like he was going to be sick. He was a light green tint and was leaning his head against the wall of the air duct.

Andy spoke up again “How did you know what wires to pull?”

Felicity looked down at her hands “I didn’t. I just treated the electrical panel like a computer mother board and that hoped that if I was able to disable them they would send a signal for help. I didn’t know they were silent alarms. Those guys didn’t seem to realize that I pulled some of the door alarms as well. I, I didn’t mean to make them speed up their plans. If I had fallen, I know they would have killed me. I just wanted to help… ”

Felicity wiped away the sweat from her forehead and looked around. When she had seen the vent she thought for sure it would have been much cooler inside than on the ground, but the air around her felt hot and sticky. Maybe it was because of the close proximity to three teenage boys, or maybe it was because they had just survived certain death, but she realized that everyone had a sheen of sweat on their faces and necks. The air duct was much larger than any airshaft she had ever seen before and they were all able to fit inside and sit down without having to bend over. Andy and Oliver’s heads almost touched the top but they still had about an inch of space.

“So what now?” asked Felicity 

Everyone looked around at each other. There was a mixture of fear and uncertainty throughout their group. Tommy leaned over and vomited down into the room and all over the make shift ladder.  Oliver seemed to wake from his trance at this and moved next to Tommy and began rubbing his back. Felicity shuffled closer thinking she could help comfort Tommy as well, but she gagged and shuffled away as he hurled more of his breakfast. The only sound was the splattering as it reached it’s destination below.

“Yep, nope, sorry I just” **gag** “Yeah no, I can’t handle throw-up” she said as she shuffled further away from the boys trying not to gag again.

“You okay Tommy?” Oliver asked.

“Yeah Ollie I’m great! Nothing like a little kidnapping in the morning to get your blood pumping and your stomach churning.” Sarcasm dripping from every word Tommy said. It would have been funny, Felicity thought, if Tommy wasn’t leaning against the air duct wall for support as he spoke.

Oliver just rolled his eyes and sat next to Tommy waiting for him to turn back to a normal, non-green hue. This Oliver was much different than the one who had cussed her out earlier that day. This one actually had helped save her life and she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about this. Which one was the real Oliver? The one, who had hastily asked if she wanted his signature and called her a bitch, or the one who talked about his little sister to calm her down from a panic attack and helped his friend as he puked?

Tommy’s color seemed to be returning so he straightened his shoulders and coughed a little trying to regain his manliness Felicity thought.

“Here Dude,” Andy whispered, “use my handkerchief to wipe your mouth.”  He removed a square piece of light blue fabric from his back pocket and handed it over to Tommy.

“Thanks.” Tommy said sincerely. He turned to Felicity as he wiped his mouth and said “I look like the biggest woose right now.”

“I don’t think you’re a wimp at all! This is insane and I would think you all were like, robots or something, if you didn’t show at least a little emotion, I mean, I had a complete freak out earlier and you guys helped me though it. So no, you’re not a wimp. You’re brave and helped save my life!” Felicity moved her hand to lie on top of his hand to show her sincerity. She looked around at the other boys. “You all did and I’m kind of grateful that I got stuck with you guys or I might be dead. Yet another sentence I never thought I’d actually say out loud after this morning.” At this all the boys chuckled lightly.

“So, what do we do now?” Oliver questioned.

Everyone looked at a loss for words.

Andy grabbed something from his back pocket and then moved closer to join the huddle that had surrounded Tommy. He laid a detailed map of the museum flat on to the floor of the air vent between all of their feet.  

“Andy, where the heck did you get that?!” Felicity asked in astonishment. The map was nothing like the one she had picked up at the front desk earlier. This one had the layout of the entire museum, as well as rooms for storage, employee offices, and electrical rooms like the one below them.

“It’s the floor plan of the museum. My mom is an architect and she loves to buy copies of buildings in Starling City. It’s a weird hobby, I know, but I think it has to do with my dad. He’s in the army and he has always taught us to be aware of our surroundings. Even when I will little every time we would go into a new store at the mall or something he would reward us if my brother and I could spot all the exits.”

“Yeah if you ever play Laser tag with the Diggle’s you better be prepared to loose or recruit them to your team. They are brutal and seem to have eyes in the back of their heads.” Oliver explained. “I always thought the training your dad gave you and John was weird but…” Oliver tailed off as he looked around at where they currently were. Andy’s quick thinking and unorthodox skills that he had learned from his father had saved all of their lives.

“Well that explains a lot…” Felicity trailed off, realizing why Andy had known what to do when they first heard the shots. Protecting her with his body; knowing how to pick a lock; spotting the electrical room – it made sense that these skills would be ingrained into his mind by his father.

“My dad likes to test me and my brother John on my mom’s blueprints of the buildings in Starling City. My dad always said it kept us “aware” but I just like knowing more about a building I’m in than anyone else the room.” Andy confessed with a smirk.

“Well, it’s still weird that you had blueprints of the museum in your pocket on our fieldtrip.” Tommy injected, drawing out the word ‘fieldtrip’ for emphasis. “Even though you’re a Boy Scout and all, don’t you think this is taking “Be Prepared” a little too far?” Tommy questioned shaking his head “I mean I’m glad that you did, but Andy I think this is proof enough that I was right the other day.”

“Right about what?” Felicity inquired

“That Andy here is going to follow in his dad and brothers footsteps and become a soldier.” With this Tommy slapped Andy’s back proudly.

Andy looked at Tommy with one eyebrow raised “Well I wouldn’t be much of a solider if I couldn’t get us out of here alive so let’s get a plan before you start puking again.” Andy said in a clearly playful tone to Tommy.

“Oh man that was harsh!” Tommy sarcastically said as he grabbed at his stomach with both of his hands “I bared my guts in front of you and this is how you repay me? How will I ever recover?!” he said with a chuckle  

“Come on Merlyn, toughen up and let’s get out of here.” Andy joked back. 

“So what’s your plan future solider?” Oliver asked Andy

“Well, we don’t know anything about these guys and what they’re doing here but my guess is we could either go up and hide or go down and hide.”

“Umm what?” Felicity gasped “I don’t think we can get much higher than this, and I definitely don’t want to go back down there to get covered in Tommy’s puke, and on top of that, get shot at!” clearly confused on how they could get higher than the ceiling and why Andy thought it was a good idea to go back down where they had almost been discovered.

“No, see look at this.” Andy pointed to the roof of the museum. “This museum is a two story building. Right now we’re in the first floor airshaft. If we can follow the airshaft up, it connects to the second floor air ducts, and then from there we can climb to the Attic. See!” He pointed to the dome that was on top of the museum. “It’s actually a storage for old exhibits and I have a feeling that these guys aren’t going to try to break into an old dusty attic when they have so much going on down here.”

This made sense but at the same time Felicity was still unsure.

“What is the other option?” Oliver asked echoing her concerns.

“Well,” Andy said “we could go back down and hope that they don’t come back or just sit here and pray they don’t realize we used that shelf as a ladder. Either way we’re sitting ducks. So I think we should move.”

“I agree.” Oliver chimed in.

“Okay.” Tommy relented. He turned his head and looked at Felicity.

“What do you think?” he questioned.

“I…I’m going to trust you know what you’re doing Andy. And as much as I would love to stay here and have angry masked men kill me,” Felicity said sarcastically “I would much rather try getting out of here alive.” She nodded her head at Andy as if to say ‘Lead the way’. If she was going to entrust her life in anyone of the three boys hands before her, Andy was definitely her best bet.

“Okay, so we are here at the back of the museum.” He pointed “This looks like the air condition shaft we are in connects up to the second floor in the Egyptian exhibit. If we can crawl there and then get up to the second floor, we can try to figure out how to access the attic.”

“Okay well which way should we go?” asked Felicity as she turned her head to the left and the right. The air duct they were in was a straight line, and they could crawl either way for quite some time before they would have to turn.

Andy looked down at the map and then back up to where they were. “I think we could go to the right and then turn to the right up ahead again. Then we can continue on for a ways before we have to turn again. The Egyptian exhibit is pretty far away when you consider we will be crawling but I think we can make it.” Andy said as he folded the map back up and stuck it in his back pocket.

“Okay well, you want to lead the way Andy?” Oliver asked.

“Sure.” he said as he took the lead and everyone else fell in line behind him.

Tommy followed right behind Andy and Felicity fell in behind him while Oliver took up the rear. As they began to crawl the rubber on the tips of all of their shoes made squeaking noises on the cold metal of the air ducts periodically.

“Hey Felicity,” whispered Tommy “Enjoying the view?” he asked jokingly as he shook his butt in her face.

“Really Tommy?” Felicity asked unamused. She was getting used to the boys humor and the boys themselves. The more she learned about Tommy the more he reminded her of Lucas back in Colorado. He would always say crazy things to her and Leiah but she had learned to hold her own over the years. “We're crawling for our lives and you think it’s a good time for me to check out your butt?”

Andy snickered “Remember Tommy, she said little brother cute not make babies with you cute.”

As they all reflected back on their initial meeting that morning, Felicity heard Oliver stifle a laugh behind her and she realized Oliver had a full view of her dairy air as well.

“Don’t you dare say anything about my butt Oliver, or I will kick you, hard!” Felicity threatened.

“Oh crap.” Tommy whispered when one exceptionally loud squeak came from his shoe. Everyone stopped crawling and sat down.

“Okay, this plan isn’t going to work if our squeaking shoes give us away. Gee I can just see the headlines now ‘Children trying to escape museum shot and killed because their rubber shoes gave away their hiding place’ But I feel like that’s probably too long of a headline and I have a feeling nobody would know where our hiding place was if we were dead and yeah 3… 2… 1’” Felicity whispered trying to get back on topic. “How about we just take them off and just crawl in our socks?”

“Where are we supposed to put our shoes?” asked Andy as he slid his shoes off.

“OH DEAR LORD! Tommy is that your feet?!” Felicity stammered out trying to cover her nose with her sleeve so she could breathe. She had been placing her flats in her backpack when her nose had been hit with a wall of funk. “It smells like a mixture of throw up, ramen noodles and rotten eggs!”

The smell wafting off of Tommy’s feet seemed to permeate the tight space and Felicity thought she was going to be sick.

“OH MY GOD MAN! What did you do? Kill a cat with your feet?” whispered Andy, but it came out as more of a hiss as he tried to cover his nose as well.

Oliver laughed as he held up his shirt to cover his face. He mumbled out “Tommy doesn’t believe in wearing socks. Trust me, its waaaaaaay worse in heat. Last summer my mom made him wash his feet before he could come inside our house because of the smell.”

“Who doesn’t believe in socks?!” Felicity asked exasperated at the thought that people didn’t wear socks with their tennis shoes. She looked accusingly at Tommy and said “Didn’t your mother ever teach you simple hygiene?! It smells like you haven’t washed…”she trailed off as she realized all three boys had weird looks on their faces and Andy was shaking his head at her as if to tell her to stop talking. “What? Did I say something wrong? Oh God Tommy, don’t tell me you don’t believe in bathing as well!”

Tommy shook his head and shrugged off her comments “Nah, I wash but I’m guessing I’m going have to up my game if a girl like you thinks my feet smell like rotten eggs.”

“Why are you guys still giving me weird looks?” Felicity asked looking between Oliver and Andy

“Guys stop. I’m fine.” Tommy said in a convincing tone to the boys. “It’s nothing Felicity, it’s just my mom died a long time ago so she never got the chance to, and how did you put it? Teach me simple hygiene.” He said with a crooked grin.

“Oh, I’m so sorry I didn’t realize-” Felicity stammered out before Tommy cut her off.

“Don’t worry about it. It was a long time ago and my dad’s tried to instill in me the need for socks over the years but I guess I just never thought it was important. Well until I got stuck in an air vent and realized that I might just kill us all with the smell.” He said jokingly as he picked up one of his discarded shoes and sniffed it.

“OH-” he suddenly gagged “Oh my god you weren’t kidding. Jees, now my eyes are watering.” He mumbled.

At this Oliver, Andy and Felicity laughed quietly.

“Okay, well Felicity you’re the only one with a backpack so were gonna have to put our shoes in your bag.” Andy whispered.

“There is no way in the **world** those shoes” she said pointing at Tommy’s sneakers “are coming anywhere near my backpack. No, you guys can tie your shoe strings together and carry them around your neck. My backpack is already full as it is and as much as I would love to help you out, I know that smell would never wash out.” She said wrinkling her nose up at the idea.

“No, don’t do that to me!” said Tommy in a pleading but joking voice. “It’s going to be torture. I’m not going to be able to smell anything after this.”

“Neither are we.” said Oliver “Come on Tommy, can’t take your own stench? What about all those times last summer when you said I was over reacting when I said I could smell your feet from a mile away?”

“Dude,” said Andy “This is literally the nastiest thing I have ever smelled in my life. I’m just glad I’m at the front of the line.”

“No!” Felicity said realizing that smelling Tommy’s feet was a certain kind of cruel and unusual punishment. “I cannot be behind these skunks for the rest of the day. I’m taking a vote right now. All in favor of Tommy taking the caboose of this train say I.”

“I” Felicity, Oliver and Andy said in unison.

“Awww come on guys, you know it’s not that ba-” Tommy bent down to take another whiff and then said “Nope, No your right, to the end I go.”

All the boys had their shoes laces tied together and shoes hanging down around their necks as they began to crawl again. This time is was completely quite and the only sound that could be heard was the soft shift of clothes shuffling along. The crawling order had changed up a bit after the shoe incident. Andy was still the leader but Felicity moved up to spot number two, followed by Oliver with Tommy bringing up the rear. They didn’t talk again until they were at the break in the air vent. It broke off into four different directions and they all knew they needed to turn right if they were going to head towards the Egyptian exhibit.

As they came to the intersection, per say, Andy held up his hand to let everyone know to stop crawling. He looked down at the vent and then carefully crawled over it and turned towards the right. Felicity went next and made it across. When it was Oliver’s turn, he looked down at the museum below him, through the grates of the vent, and stopped. Two of the masked gunmen had walked up and were right below the vent talking. Everyone mimicked Oliver and looked down at the scene below. Felicity held up a finger to her lips to let the boys know to stay quite.

“Okay, so I heard from James. He said that team leader said Operation Fulcrum is a go.” explained the first gunman.

“Now they’re going start looking for the packages, right?” asked the second person in black however the tone of their voice was a dead giveaway that it was a woman.

“Yeah, and James said we need to round up the rest of the hostages in block B and get ready for negotiations.” The gunman said.

“What about that alarm?” asked the female intruder.

“James said it was only a minor setback but Boss was furious. He said it gave enough time for some of the kids from that other school to escape. But we blocked off all the doors so no more hostages can get away. In the long run those few didn’t matter so, we’re still all good to move on with the plan.” Explained the gunman

Felicity noticed that the female and male both had on matching black uniforms and ski masks as well as matching guns. Everything about them was identical except for the fact that Felicity could see small whips of curly brown hair escaping from underneath the back of the women’s mask. She tried to see if there was any other details she could notice but nothing else stood out.

The captors kept talking between themselves as they moved away from the air vent. All Felicity could make out was something about _Block B_ and _hostages_. Felicity looked over and for the first time saw a wide eyed Tommy staring back at her. She motioned for Oliver to come across the vent and he did. When he made it over they all waited until Tommy made it to the other side before moving again.

Andy guided the group a little ways away from the open vent and then spoke up. 

“Okay guys we’re going to have to be more careful about talking in here.” He said with a whisper. “We don’t know where the open air vents are and they could give us away.”

“How about if we need to talk we will tap the person in front of us and then they tap the person in front of them until it gets to you Andy, and then you stop?” asked Felicity. “Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, I think it’s a good idea.” whispered Andy. “That way we can communicate but still stay safe.”

While Andy was talking Felicity sat down, brought her backpack in front of her and began digging inside.

“What are you doing?” snapped Oliver at her “We have to go.”

Felicity glared at him. “I’m going to take notes on what I’ve noticed so far on our captors.” Felicity explained as she continued digging “Yes!” she whispered; fist pumping the air with one hand and bringing out the container from her back pack with the other. The rectangular navy blue box was about the size of a notebook but had only one white sticker on the side that gave away what it was. Felicity had made it with Leiah and Lucas and it said ‘Spy Kit’.

“This is not the time to pretend your freaking Nancy Drew.” Oliver huffed out.

“Did you just whip out a spy kit from your backpack? Who are you Mary Poppins?” Tommy asked jokingly

“For your information sugar does help the medicine go down and yes, this is a spy kit.” Felicity said giving Oliver a glare as she laid it on the floor of the air duct and opened it up. She thought he had changed from this morning’s incidents but she had obviously been wrong. Maybe she could just ignore him for the rest of the day.

“Oh my gosh this is nuts!” Tommy exclaimed. “First Andy with his Blueprints, and now you with your spy kit! It’s like a match made in a slightly scary part of heaven!”

Felicity could feel the red of her cheeks as the implications of what he was suggesting hit her.

“Yeah, well I don’t hear you complaining, Tommy ‘cause that map has saved us so far.” Andy spoke up. “Where did you get this Felicity?” he asked, leaning over and taking the binoculars out and looked through them.

“I made it, with my friends back in Colorado. We used to pretend we were spies and would go on adventures. But it was never quite like this…” she trailed off thinking about how for the first time she was actually going to use her spy kit to do actual spying.

Felicity grabbed her notebook that was inside the case and began to write down all that she had seen and heard since they had been kidnapped.

“So you just carry this around with you all the time?” Oliver scowled in confusion. He wasn’t digging into the kit like Andy and Tommy and she could see he was clearly ticked off that they weren’t moving.

“No, I don’t carry it around with me all the time. Who am I MacGyver?” Felicity said waving the pencil she had been writing with, in the air. “Not that there is anything wrong with being MacGyver but it’s just I can’t use a toothpick to disarm a bomb as much as I would love to. Not that I want to be around bombs because, you know, they are used to kill people, I just think it would be awesome to be MacGyver or to be able to defuse any bomb which, in all likely hood I wouldn’t be able to so 3… 2… 1…” Felicity trailed off when she realized she had gone off on a tangent about MacGyver and bombs.

“Sorry,” Felicity tried to explain to Andy and Tommy. She turned away from Oliver, trying to ignore the confused look he was giving her after the MacGyver rant. “it’s just I’m nervous and I’m trying to remember all I can about the guards we saw earlier and I’m thinking about my friends and what they would say if they knew where I was and I’m wondering if we’re going to make it out of here alive and if this plan-” Felicity was cut off by Tommy.

“It’s okay.” He said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Were all in this together so if your dead were dead to, which doesn’t sound as good as it did in my head. I think you’re rubbing off on me!” he said with a light laugh, which made Felicity smile. “How about you tell us what you remember about the guards and we’ll tell you what else to add to the list.”

“Yeah,” interjected Andy “This was really smart thinking. My dad would be impressed! Why did you bring this with you again?” asked Andy

“I honestly don’t know.” Confessed Felicity “I just saw it on my way out of the house this morning and grabbed it.”

“Well I’m glad you did!” replied Andy

“Me too.” said Tommy. “I mean, look at all of this! You’re not playing around when you say spy kit! This is incredible. From now on your nickname is MacGyver, not wait Poppins, no wait I have it!” he said snapping his fingers “McPoppins!”

Felicity made a face of disgust “Oh Please no! That’s the worst nick name I’ve ever, well no I take that back, Victoria did call me Freaklicity this morning, which was a new one, but I’m not sure which one is worse.”

“I’m pretty sure Freaklicity takes the cake for worst nickname to describe you.” said Tommy.

She heard Oliver snickering behind her back when Tommy said ‘Freaklicity’, so she whipped her head around to confront him. She was tried of all his little snide remarks.

“Well, you did call me a Be-och this morning so right now your number one on my worst nickname list. And I know you don’t know me but give me a few minuets with a computer and I will make it so you have to repeat the 8th grade. Don’t tempt me.” Felicity growled out matching the scowl Oliver was giving her.

“Was that a threat?” Oliver snarled out.

“Okay, Okay.” Tommy said in a high pitch sing song voice, placing his arm between the two, trying to break up the tension that had filled the small space. Felicity scooted away from Oliver and closer to Andy as Tommy kept talking. “Felicity, you are quite scary when you’re angry. I think we have established that point. So how about we put some distance between you two for now? I’m gonna talk to Oliver here and you go think up more things with Andy.” He said waving her off.

Felicity crawled towards Andy with her notebook in hand.

“He can be a real dick sometimes.” Andy whispered under his breath as Felicity neared him.

“Tell me about it.” Felicity sighed. “Why are you even friends with Mood Swings MaGoo?” Felicity questioned.

Andy seriously had to hold back a loud laugh that was begging to be released from his throat. “Mood Swings MaGoo? Oh Felicity, Don’t ever change. Please.” He said laying a hand on her shoulder. “About eight, well I guess it’s nine years ago now, my Dad started to uhh,” Andy paused, looking up at Andy and Tommy, who had scooted further away from them and back at Felicity. “He had started to work for Oliver’s dad, so one day I came along cause my mom was out of town and my brother was a football camp, and the rest is history. We’ve all been inseparable ever since.” He paused and took a deep breath.

“Remember earlier today when I told you normally we are actually who girls want to hang out with? Normally, girls are falling all over themselves to talk to them, and I think that might be what his problem is. Among other thing.” Andy tried to explain.

“But that still doesn’t make sense to me. Mr. Grumpy pants over there isn’t a freaking ball of sunshine that I would want to spend any time with. I can’t speak for my entire sex, but I just don’t believe that girls would be falling all over themselves to get to him.” Looking over in the general area of where hushed whispers were coming from Tommy and Oliver “I trust you Andy, I mean you saved my life, but I’m not really believing you in this particular case.” Felicity confessed.

Andy snickered and shook his head “You really don’t know who they are, do you?”

Felicity shook her head with a confused look on her face “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Andy just shook his head and answered “Never mind. It’s better if you didn’t know anyways.”

As Felicity was trying to wrap her mind around Andy’s cryptic words, Tommy crawled up behind her and started talking like nothing had ever happened.

“Gee’s, what time is it?” Tommy asked.

“Well I have a watch in my spy kit that says its… 11:34am! Wow, it feels like it’s been a **lot** longer than **that**!” an exasperated Felicity whispered.

“I know, I feel the same way.” Tommy sighed as he spoke.

“Okay, so we better get moving if we want to make it to the attic before Operation whatever goes into effect.” Andy told the group

“Wait,” Felicity said “We need to finish writing down all the things we’ve seen now or we will forget them.” She quickly wrote down descriptions of the guards they had just seen as well as the four men that had come into the Electrical room after they had escaped. She wrote down what she could remember while the boys explored her spy kit.

“What’s this?” Tommy questioned holding up a small black bottle.

“Oh that’s my finger printing dust.” She said nonchalantly.

“Okay McPoppins, explain that sentence.” Tommy said as he looked at her like she had just quoted French.

“Fingerprinting powered is what you dust onto-” she was cut off when Tommy spoke again

“I know what it is, but why do you have it?” he asked clearly confused.

“This isn’t some amateur spy kit. Lucas, Leiah and I spent years saving up to get real spy stuff. I don’t know why, but we thought that if we were going to have a spy kit, it needed to be legitimate.” She explained

“Wait,” Oliver spoke up for the first time since the incident “your best friends names are Luke and Leiah? Like as in Skywalker?” Oliver eyes grew wide and he looked very concerned.

Not only did this guy have severe mood swings, but now, he also thought she was crazy. “No, well yes! Their real, I didn’t make up these friends. How pathetic do you think I am? And his names not Luke, its Lucas, which doesn’t really help my case but here, Look!”

She pulled out a picture from her kit of the three of them in the tree in her old back yard. At the last second Lucas had stuck his tongue out which made the girls laugh and that’s when her mother had taken the picture. They were all laughing.

“See, I’m not crazy. I do have friends and yes, they are aware they were named after Star Wars characters.” She explained.

“So you’re like the Han Solo of the group!” Tommy excitedly exclaimed. “I just realized this makes your nickname even better MacPoppins Solo!”

“No, just NO! First off that nick name needs to go. And Secondly I have no romantic feelings for Lucas. Just the thought of that make me want to gag.” Felicity proceeded to pretend to gag and the boys laughed.

“You look different here.” Oliver stated.

“Well it’s not every day you meet a girl in an air duct.” Felicity sarcastically spat out.

“No it’s not that. It’s your face. You look really happy here.” Oliver said. She could tell he was trying to be nice. Whatever Tommy had discussed with him must of really gotten his attention. Or at least she hoped it had.

“Well I was, but then you don’t get to choose where your mother get’s the best job. Or which state said job moves you to, or how crappy your new school is because the girls there are just strange. They all want to grow up way faster than they should, I mean the first week of school almost every girl in my class had a boyfriend. We’re in the 6th grade; I don’t see what the rush is. I just want to build computers, not plan my wedding! And I can’t help it if ugh, 3…2…1…” Felicity trailed off, thinking back to all the things that were not so good about moving.

“Sorry.” Andy whispered as he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“No, I’m sorry. I promised myself I would see the silver lining and here I am getting all sentimental and grumpy over a picture. Okay let’s just move past that little pity party and look on the bright side shall we?” she said smiling

“So you and your friends built this spy kit all on your own?” asked Andy

“Yeah, and they have their own ones as well. But hopefully some of this stuff can help us. Okay, so here,” she passed the notebook to Andy “see if you can think of anything to add to what I have written down.”

As Andy read over the list, Oliver continued to look through her spy kit.

“I know you said you wanted to move past this little pity party but did you say you want to build computers?” sputtered Tommy

“Oh,” Felicity laughed “I already do that. I just meant I wish I had more time to build them. But you have to at least get some sunshine each day or you’ll die. At least that’s what my Bubbe tells me.”  Felicity smiled remembering lengthy phone conversations with her Bubbe, reprimanding her for “getting in her zone” and not eating or going outside.

“So much of that sentence did not make sense to me.” Tommy said shaking his head.

“What’s a Bubbe?” Andy asked.

“It’s a Jewish thing. It’s a name for a grandmother. And yes Tommy, I build computers. I love technology. I mean if I could become a computer programmer one day that would be my dream. Just imagine being able to code all day long and…” She looked up and all the boys were staring at her with blank expressions.

“How smart did you say you were again?” questioned Oliver.

“I didn’t. My mother has never had me tested but at my last school I was taking a high school level Math class.” Felicity said with a sigh “It was glorious.”

Oliver blinked and Tommy just stared.

Andy smiled, cleared his throat and spoke up. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone call math glorious. Boys, look’s like were in the presence of a genius.” He said with a smirk.

“Stop it.” She grunted as she bumped shoulders with Andy. “That’s why I usually can’t make friends; because once they find out, they’re either impressed and want me to do their homework for them, or call me any assortment of names like Freaklicity. But I’m just glad you’re not the latter.”

“Does it make me a bad person if I say my immediate thought was to ask you to do my math homework?” Tommy questioned jokingly.

“Yes, Tommy.” Felicity smirked “It makes you a bad person. But you were already pretty naughty so I don’t think this was affect how Santa see’s you.”

At the mention of naughty Tommy began to move his eyebrows up and down in a playful sort of manner. Felicity realized he was trying to be sexy and reacted on instinct. She slapped his shoulder lightly and spat out “Not in a sexy way Tommy. Stop with the dirty thoughts. Were in a hostage situation for goodness sakes.”

“Remember Tommy, little brother cute.” Andy said with a wink.

At the mention of that morning’s run in Felicity blushed and tried to get everyone back on track.

“Andy did you add anything to my list of things we know about the suspects?” Felicity questioned.

“Look at you, using fancy words like suspects.” Tommy teased “Been watching a lot of cop shows have we?”

Felicity just rolled her eyes and ignored him.

“I can’t think of anything else.” Andy said handing the list over to Oliver. “Can you guys?”

Tommy peered over Oliver’s shoulder and began reading along.

“Oh, um you have James and Donny’s name on this list from the electrical room but the other two guys they called them Mark, and I believe, Allen.” Oliver confessed passing the notebook back to her so she could write their names in.

“Oh yeah, that’s right, I remember!” Felicity exclaimed as she wrote down more details about the four men in the electrical room.

“Anything else? Besides the creepy man and woman who kept talking about Block B and hostages?” she whispered to the group

“Nothing that I can think of.” Andy stated. He had grabbed her binoculars earlier but still held them in his hand. Felicity looked down at his hand about to ask for them back when he discovered what she was looking at.

“Oh here,” Andy said holding out the binoculars so she could put them away as well. “Wouldn’t want these to get scraped while I’m crawling”

As Felicity began packing up her spy kit, she placed the notebook inside, and then took the rest of the supplies that the boys had taken out back away. She wanted the Spy kit to be safe at the bottom of her back pack so she grabbed her shoes out of her bag and put them on the floor then grabbed the walkie-talkies and sat them next to her shoes. At this, Tommy gasped and she knew she should of just left them in her bag.

“Did you just pull out walkie-talkies from your magical bag McPoppins?” Tommy inquired amazed as he turned one of the walkie-talkies on.

A loud sound of static came from the base of the walkie-talkie and Felicity flung herself over Andy to grab the device from Tommy and turn the volume down. Everyone froze. The sound had been loud. Very loud. They all waited silently wondering if they had been discovered. Felicity was frozen; half laying on top of Andy’s lap afraid that if she moved their location would be given away. Oliver must of felt the same way because he was frozen like a statue, eyes wide in shock with the other walkie-talkie in his hands. Thankfully, still turned off. They all sat like that, stiff as cement for about 10 minuets until Felicity decided to sit up because Andy’s knees were pressing into her stomach. With the adrenaline wearing off, it was beginning to hurt. She sat up and grabbed the other walkie-talkie from Oliver’s hands.

“Tommy, what were you thinking? We could have been discovered! Or worse, killed!” Felicity hissed out.

“I’m sorry, really. I didn’t know walkie-talkies could make so much noise.” He looked genuinely upset and she nodded her head at him as if to say it was okay.

As Felicity slipped them back into her bag Andy spoke up.

“I would feel much better if we moved on from here, just in case someone heard something.”

He began crawling and they all fell in line right behind him, Felicity, Oliver and Tommy. They had been crawling for a long time and Felicity was beginning to wonder if they were close to the Egyptian exhibit when a loud sound, like a fart, emanated from Andy.

Felicity’s eyes went wide. He did not just fart in her face. Did he?!

“Did you fart?” Oliver said trying to contain his laughter as he sat down.

“No, it was my stomach man!” Andy tried to reassure them. “I haven’t eaten anything since this morning and I’m starving.”

At this Tommy’s stomach seemed to agree and made an even louder gurgle.

“Oh I can fix this!” Felicity whispered excitedly. She dug around in her backpack and pulled out her large lunch box.

“McPoppins my SAVIOR!” Tommy exclaimed dramatically “What would we do without you?!”

“Probably starve.” Oliver stated

“Or die.” Andy added “We wouldn’t have been up here in this without you.” He whispered to Felicity.

“Well thanks for the confidence boost guys but all I did was provide food and a crazy idea.” Felicity laughed, “I shall go down in history as the woman who opened a door!”

All the boys looked at her with confused faces.

“What? Please tell me you’ve seen ‘Ever After’. It was the greatest movie that came out last year! Leonardo Da Vinci opens the door for Danielle, played by the ever-talented Drew Barrymore. What?? Don’t give me that look Tommy or your not getting any of my sandwich!” Felicity whispered jokingly

“I’m pretty sure the best movie that came out last year was ‘Saving Private Ryan’” Andy said

“Dude, did you NOT see The Big Lebowski? What’s Saving Private Ryan even about? Saving a dude named Ryan? How original is that?”  Tommy questioned

“It’s about the liberation of France and D-Day during World War II you ding a ling! Oh my gosh, I cannot believe you just said a stoner movie is better than a Stephen Spielberg movie.” Felicity whispered exasperated at even the notion of such a thing.

“Ding a ling?” Oliver chuckled as he shook his head “Do I even what to know what you think of my favorite movie of last year, ‘The Truman Show’?”

“Okay, you and Andy have taste. You sir” she said pointing her finger at Tommy “Need a culture education.”

“Come on McPoppins! Where’s the love?” Tommy said as he tried to go in for a hug.

Felicity squirmed to the other side of the air duct to sit next to Oliver and said “Okay, change of topic before I hurt you.” Eyes narrowing to Tommy. She opened up her lunch box and pulled out two turkey sandwiches that were cut in half, two chocolate pudding cups, two bags of lays plain potato chips and a sandwich bag full of Oreo cookies. “And before any of you ask, I am a stress eater so it’s better if you ate some of this because if you don’t, I WILL eat it all.”

“Wasn’t planning on saying anything.” Oliver said as he mimed with his hands zipping his mouth shut and looked to Tommy. A look passed between the two but Felicity couldn’t figure out what it meant.

“We’re just glad we’re going to be able to eat. Isn’t that right Tommy?” Andy said narrowing his eyes at Tommy.

“Yes. And I’m totally not going to say anything about McPoppins stuffing her Mcface with her McSandwi-” Tommy was cut off with a punch to each arm from Oliver and Andy.

“Ow, okay yeah totally deserved that one guys. Sorry.” Tommy directed his apology to Felicity as he rubber both arms with his hands.

Felicity just shook her head as she divided the sandwiches up.

“Why don’t you have a PB&J?” asked Oliver as he took a big bite out of the half felicity handed him. “Normally on fieldtrips that’s the go to sandwich for us.”

“Oh, well, I don’t want to DIE so that’s why.” Felicity explained “I’m allergic to peanuts so there’s THAT little problem. Seriously, I can’t tell you how many times I could have gone into anaphylactic shock because some bozo decided it would be funny to put peanut butter in my food went I went to the bathroom or something during lunch. Luckily I always check my food because after one time of thinking your dying after eating a weird tasking hamburger, you learn to ask questions and not to trust the kids around you to look out for you.”

“You have to count how many times someone has put peanuts in your food because it’s happened more than once?!” Andy asked in astonishment.

“Yeah kids can be mean so I have an epinephrine pen in my backpack at all times. You know just in case.” Felicity stated nonchalantly.

Andy just shook his head as he ate his sandwich. They all sat quietly for a while just listening to the hum of the air condition in another part of the building and ate their portion of Felicity’s lunch. When it came to the pudding Felicity decided she didn’t want any because Andy still looked like he was still hungry so she gave her portion to him.

“If you guys get hungry later I have even more snacks.” Felicity added when everyone seemed to be finished.

“Wow, you really are prepared.” Andy whispered, amazed at all that Felicity had done so far.

“You make it sound like I’m a boy scout or something. This is literally the only time in my life that my stress eating has come in handy.” Felicity explained

“Well McPoppins, does your magic bag have some water bottles as well or are we just supposed to swallow our spit?” Tommy questioned

“Well with that that tone Merlyn, I don’t think you deserve to drink out of one of my two water bottles.” Felicity said smirking as she pulled them out of her backpack taunting Tommy.

“What did I ever do to deserve a girl like you McPoppins?!” Tommy whispered as he grabbed the water bottle from her hand and starting drinking it.

“Tommy what are you doing? We’re supposed to share!” Andy said as he grabbed the water bottle from Tommy’s fingers and began drinking.

“Ummm, do you want me to waterfall it?” Oliver said apprehensively to Felicity

“What? OH they’re sharing so we should share! Got it. Okay, yeah, here.” Felicity handed the water bottle she was just drinking from to Oliver and watched as he tipped his head back and held the water bottle just above his lips. Not touching the rim, he tipped the bottle back so the water could go into his mouth and took a long drink of water.

“Here Felicity.” He said handing the water bottle back to her “Uh, Thank you?” He sounded unsure when the words came out of his mouth. Was he thankful or not? Felicity was tired of trying to read this boy. He needed to get it together.

“What?” Andy asked “Get what together?” Felicity didn’t know how much of that last part she had said out loud but she needed to cover, quickly.

“My, My My STUFF! I need to get my stuff together because we probably need to get moving right?! I mean look at the time it’s like what, 12:45.” She said as she pulled her watch out of her backpack. “Seriously?! Of all the days for time to tick away slowly today had to be the day?” she whispered exasperated at the whole situation they were in.

Andy handed her back the water bottle he was sharing with Tommy and once she was all packed up, they all began to crawl down the airshaft again. It seemed like they were making really good time and not making any noise to drawn attention to themselves until they heard what sounded like a humpback whale.

Suddenly they were all hit with a blast of cold air and they realized that the air condition had just turned on in that part of the air duct. It was freezing and blowing full force right in their faces. It was a drastic change from the hot and humid air duct they had been crawling in all morning. Andy kept pressing on trying to move a little faster without making any noise but the cold was almost unbearable. Felicity at least had a sweater on but the boys only had on Polo style school uniform shirts and kaki's and Felicity knew they had to be freezing. They must have been crawling for a good five minutes before she saw Tommy poke Andy to make him stop. As soon as Andy stopped to turn around and face them, that’s when it happened.

The airshaft shifted under their weight and broke.

Before any of them could react they were falling down to the ground to the museum below. The last thing that Felicity saw before hitting the ground was the beaty eyes of a stuffed Kangaroo staring at her as she fell on top of the creature.

 


End file.
